After 25 years in the trees with a bow and having quit gun hunting for the bow about 15 years ago, I began last year to try it from the ground. Wow; it is a lot different. I live in MS, where our deer are basically abundant, but wired. I bought a Ghillie suit, and hunted about a third of the time last year behind natural blinds. I got busted 3 times on mature does within 15 yards getting caught drawing the bow. I have killed over a hundred with a bow (not good, just been doing it a long time) from trees, so I do know a bit about when to draw. In spite of all that, I kept getting busted.

Will be back at it this year. I am seeing several versions of a blind that hooks to the front of the bow, sort of like a small umbrella, that helps hid the motion of the draw. Has anybody out here used one? How well do the work?

never tried that version, but one of the guys on here added fake branches to his bow to flesh it out a bit and seems to do well. i have several blinds, Doghouse reversible, ameristep twoman spur blind with steel loops in the panels, (5 panel), and an ameristep umbrella with a 4 foot hoop which can be used as a ground blind.

The only real difference between a good tracker and a bad tracker is observation. All the same data is present for both. The rest is understanding what you are seeing.

Well, I placed an order for a blind. The one I ordered is the HIPS bow blind, standing for Hidden in Plain Sight. After talking to the owner/designer Jay, I came away convinced it was worth an effort. Our deer down here in MS are wired and weird. I've been busted 20' up in a tree at last light trying to get my binos up to identify a late arrival. That said, Jay has hunted with his blind in AL, which is pretty much like us.

Hopefully it will help conceal my draw. We will see. If you are curious, you can google the HIPS blind and watch a video at his web site.

You need to draw back from behind your blind and shoot through a window. So when I draw, I draw back out of site and then ease into the shooting window. This means you either need a 4+ft high blind or shoot from inside a doghouse-type blind - the 36" and 40" type I see sold in a few places will not do - you will get busted every time as you draw back or look over the top. Personally, I like my 54" high blind made of about 22 ft of camo burlap stapled to 1x2 54" sticks that have large pole barn spikes in the ends with the spike heads cut off. I have a shooting window cut out and also I brush in the blind. Umbrella doghouse type blinds are great, but they require a large space and take a long time to brush in - I have used them on my own land when I can leave them up and take some time to hide them. Also, my popup blind is virtually impossible to coil back to its small form so I simply fold it flat. Perhaps there are now popup blinds that are easier to fold up. On public land I like my burlap blind - it conforms to where ever I put it so I can squeeze it in between some evergreens and with some more spruce branches that I bring with me, I am just about invisible.

Another option is just to bring about 20 ft of camo burlap with you with a shooting hole in it and some wire fasteners. I have set up some natural blinds on public land where I will simply attach my burlap within a naturally made partial blind. Not too obvious or well completed so other hunters will use them but good enough with my camo to make a great blind. This might be a great way to go when still hunting and you hunt your way to a nice spot to hunker down as evening approaches.

I have used something like that HIPS blind for gun hunting, my own homemade version. Worked well. Not so sure for bow hunting, but with some natural vegetation on it you would be much better off than not having anything. With just that blind, however, you may be seen by deer approaching from the side if they are 20 yds away. For 40 yd shots I think it would be great. I have had deer walk by within 10 yds of my burlap setup and not gotten busted, but I am covered all the way around.